Flatbed truck crash backs up Selmon Expressway

The truck was transporting bags of ready-mix concrete. Portions of the load spilled onto the roadway. FLORIDA DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION

Published: April 2, 2013

TAMPA -
A flatbed tractor-trailer’s collision with a downtown barrier wall on the Selmon Expressway closed westbound traffic for hours Tuesday.
At 8:30 a.m., as the truck came to rest with its right-side wheels perched atop the barrier at the Kennedy Boulevard exit, cars behind it began to back up. Traffic into downtown was detoured onto Adamo Drive.
More than four hours later, after the crews cleaned up debris and the truck’s cargo of ready-mix cement, officials reopened one of two lanes.
About 5:15 p.m., all of the westbound lanes were reopened, according to the Florida Department of Transportation.

The flatbed was heading west, nearing the Kennedy exit, when the driver, Mark Owen Pickard, 45, of Seffner, lost control of the rig, troopers said.
The semitrailer collided with the guardrail attenuator and continued forward atop the barrier wall for 600 feet, troopers said.
The truck stopped – with right-side wheels atop the barrier – after colliding with three light poles affixed to the wall, troopers said.
The truck was transporting bags of ready-mix concrete. Portions of the load spilled onto the roadway, troopers said.
Owen was cited for careless driving, the highway patrol said.
He received minor injuries and was treated at the scene.

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